


Jökul Frosti

by Sop12345d



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Norse Religion & Lore, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Adventure, Angst, Friendship, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Humor, Misunderstandings, Podfic Welcome
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-05
Updated: 2016-03-20
Packaged: 2018-09-14 09:31:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9173788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sop12345d/pseuds/Sop12345d
Summary: Jack is flying over Norway three months after Pitch's defeat with only a small group of believers so far... suddenly he wakes up in the Viking era and meets Hiccup and Toothless... what could go wrong?





	1. Chapter 1

 

**Disclaimer: I do not own Rise of the Guardians or How To Train Your Dragon; DreamWorks does.**

 

* * *

Jack Frost, Spirit of Winter and Guardian of Fun, was in a bad mood. It had been three months since Pitch Black's, Fear itself, downfall. So far, only the Burgess kids, namely, Jaimie, Sophie, Claude, Caleb, Pippa, Cupcake and Monty, believed in him. Jack had thought that once he became a Guardian, things would change. He'd have tons of believers, just like North, Tooth, Sandy and Bunny. But it wasn't the case.

Currently, he was making his way over Norway to bring the northern country some early winter snowfall when Man in Moon suddenly shone brightly overhead. Jack looked up when the clear white light hit his staff and gasped. The Moon was, or appeared to be, coming closer and closer to him. He asked Man in Moon what it was he wanted, but there was no answer. And just like that, everything went black.

* * *

Hiccup was flying on Toothless over Berk. Three months ago, he had killed the Red Death, the largest dragon there ever was and had become the most popular person in Berk (aside from his father, the Chief Stoick the Vast, of course). Although it costed him half of his left leg, he would gladly do it all again. Hiccup had gained his first best friend, an ebony Night Fury named Toothless for his retractable teeth, when he had discovered that dragons were intelligent creatures and not ferocious killing machines.

Right now, the 15-year-old Viking teen was scouting for any Outcast or Berserker (Berk's two most formidable enemies) ships approaching Berk. Astrid was sick with the flu in bed, so she couldn't do the scouting. Snotlout couldn't even fly Hookfang, his male red Monstrous Nightmare, without getting his pants set on fire. Hiccup suspected that Hookfang was being grumpier than usual because he had another sore tooth, but he hadn't mentioned it yet. Let Gobber (his mentor and blacksmith of the village) or Fishlegs (another Viking teen who had memorized the famed Book of Dragons) figure it out. It wasn't like Snotlout was getting seriously hurt or anything, Hiccup chuckled, as Stoick had told Hiccup to leave random barrels of water around the village so Snotlout could easily jump in and "cool off" (pun intended).

Anyway, lastly, the mischievous twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, were cleaning the yak stalls as punishment for yak tipping Silent Sven's yaks yet again yesterday. Plus, Fishlegs had been assigned to watch the twins carry out their punishment because they had a bad reputation for running off and setting something on fire with their dragon, a Hideous Zippleback named Barf and Belch (one name for each head). So it fell to Hiccup to keep a lookout over the ocean for any enemy ships, since Stoick figured the other tribes might take their newly trained dragons as a threat and attack.

However, just when Hiccup thought the day couldn't be any more boring, something knocked him from the sky. Literally. One moment, he was on Toothless' back, gliding over the sea stacks, and the next, something with white hair and a blue tunic hit him out of nowhere and his prosthetic foot came out of the specialized pedal that controlled Toothless's fake tail fin. As a result, Toothless lost control and Hiccup's hook that held him to the saddle came undone. They both fell to the ground, luckily hitting some random trees that grew in the water close to shore before finally landing on wet sand. Hiccup and Toothless' vision blurred and they blacked out from the nasty fall.


	2. Chapter 2

Jack groaned and slowly sat up. His head ached and there was dirt all over his beautiful new blue hoodie, made by North specially for him as an early Christmas present. He brushed some of it off and regarded his surroundings. This was definitely not Norway. At least, not in his time period.

He was on the shore of a small island, with forest in front of him and the sea behind him. If he squinted, he could make out an odd looking village in the distance to his right. The village had weird, dome shaped houses and there were flying creatures over it, some swooping down and landing. When Jack looked to his left, he swore and realized exactly where and when he was.

Lying limp in the damp sand, a boy of around 15 with auburn hair and a green tunic, fur vest, brown leggings and fur boots was sprawled like he had just landed roughly. But what shocked Jack more was the creature next to the boy. It was black and covered in scales all over, like a reptile, but bigger, way bigger, with black bat-like wings and enormous paws that looked like they could simply swat him out of the air without a trouble. One of its tail fins was fake and was made from red fabric with a white skull with a helmet on it. This and the boy's attire gave Jack the hints he needed to know that somehow, he had just fallen through time to the Viking era. And there were dragons.

Jack had always thought that dragons had gone extinct a long time ago, or maybe never had existed at all, but here he was, sitting next to a Viking boy and a dragon, a good 1000 years before he had even been born as a human. Okay, that was too weird to think about.

Suddenly, the boy coughed and his eyes fluttered open. The dragon woke up too, blinking heavily and shaking his big head. Jack sighed. The boy wouldn't see him, he knew. Neither would the dragon, but Jack had found that over the years, animals seemed to sense his presence.

So it came as a great surprise when the boy gasped and scuttled backward like a frightened crab while the dragon jumped in front the boy and growled at Jack threateningly.

"Who... who are you?" the teen asked, emerald eyes wide.

Jack's mouth fell open, but he regained his senses quickly and said, "Jack Frost. Who're you?"

The Viking teen didn't say anything, simply gaping at him while the dragon growled even louder, if that was possible. Jack was puzzled. Had he said something wrong? "What's wrong?" he asked.

"You-you're Jökul Frosti, aren't you?" stuttered the teen, face going pale. Jack ran through the many languages he knew (which was about 15) and discovered that the boy had just said "Icicle Frost" in Norse. His name.

"Yes..." he replied, trailing off when he saw the look of terror appear on the teen's face while he scrambled frantically away from him. Jack frowned. "What is it? What's wrong?"

Instead of answering, the teen started shaking and he curled into a ball with his back to Jack. Why was the boy so afraid of Jökul Frosti? Jack reached out to place a hand on the boy's shoulder to comfort him, but the dragon growled and snapped at him.

To comfort the boy, Jack realized, he'd have to calm the dragon first. Jack picked up his staff and prodded at the ground before the dragon, instantly frosting over the sand. The dragon looked down at the sudden crackling sound and stared at the spot in wonder and confusion. Jack took advantage of this distraction and tried something he had only heard about in ancient legends. He reached out and scratched the dragons under his chin, in that sweet spot that supposedly made any dragon calm down immediately. He held his breath until the dragon went limp like a wet noodle and fell the to ground with a thud, semi-conscious and purring.

That done, Jack made his way over to the trembling boy on the ground, who, Jack discovered, had his eyes screwed tight. Jack placed a freezing hand on the boy's shoulder and jumped back when the teen flinched violently and gave him a wild animal-like look of fear.

"Kid... I'm not gonna hurt you," Jack said, heartbroken that one of his early believers was scared of him. Why was he so scared?

"Just... just leave Berk alone!" the boy cried, trying to be brave.

"Berk?" Jack asked, confused.

"My home! It's this island, and we will not let a frost giant destroy our village! They'll come looking for me when I go missing, and you'll be sorry!" the boy said in one breath. He was trembling uncontrollably now, despite his brave words.

"Frost giant..." Jack mumbled to himself. Of course! How could he have forgotten? In Norse mythology, a frost giant was said to destroy anything and everything in its path, and Jökul Frosti was said to to be the one who left frost on your windows during the night and freezing snow on the ground. Anyone who crossed him was said to have been frozen over with a thick layer of ice or snow. No wonder this kid was scared. After all, the Vikings were a superstitious lot.

He gently set his staff down to the side and said in a no-nonsense tone, "Oh please. I would never do that. Where did you hear these things anyway?"

The boy relaxed ever so slightly, but still remained tense. "I don't know... They're legends. From the tales of the gods, I guess," he replied.

Jack scoffed and said, "I'll have you know that I have never frozen anybody in my life."

The boy blushed and looked down. Then, as if he had had an idea, he glanced up at Jack and asked tentatively, "So.. your real name is Jack Frost then? Can you really summon up frost, snow and ice?"

"In a word, yes," Jack replied happily. The boy was warming up to him now. "What's your name?" he asked, having just realized that he didn't even know who this boy was.

"Hiccup Haddock Horrendous the Third, Hope and Heir to the Hairy Hooligan Tribe and son of Stoick the Vast, Chief of the Hairy Hooligan Tribe," Hiccup said in a monotonous voice, as if he had heard this phrase or had to rehearse it often.

Jack chucked at his ridiculous name and said, "Well, Hiccup, I suppose you should wake up your dragon now. He's been out cold for a good 10 minutes now, I think."

Hiccup started and ran to assess Toothless, regarding Jack out of the corner of his eye, guessing that he was responsible for Toothless' faint. The Viking boy shook the dragon's shoulder a bit until the creature suddenly opened both of its eyes fully, alert and awake. The dragon jumped up in front of Hiccup again, snarling at Jack while making sure his wings kept Hiccup hidden from view. Jack stood there, amused at the dragon's antics, while Hiccup attempted to calm down his dragon with words like, "It's ok, bud" and "He's safe".

Finally, the dragon stopped its snarling and growling at Jack and visibly relaxed. Wow, Jack thought. That dragon sure is protective of Hiccup. "So," he began, wondering what to do next. "Did you see anything weird before I, um, arrived here?" Jack stressed the word arrived, as his arrival had been to randomly appear in the sky, knock Hiccup and the dragon to the ground and scare the wits out of Hiccup (all by accident, of course).

"Well, I didn't see anything unusual. I was riding on Toothless, looking for enemy ships and all of a sudden, you just appeared out of nowhere," Hiccup explained, stroking Toothless' head as the black dragon inhaled Jack's cold, wintery scent.  
"Hmm..." Jack hummed. The last he'd seen before waking up next to Hiccup was the Man in Moon getting bigger and brighter in the night sky in Norway in 2012. Someone gasped, causing the winter spirit to suddenly look up at Hiccup's awestruck face. "I just said that out loud, didn't I?" he asked Hiccup, already knowing the answer.

Hiccup nodded quickly before blurting out in a rush, "You're from 2012?!"

Jack scratched the back of his head awkwardly before responding with, "Yeah... I'll go into that later. Do you know what day it is today?"

Hiccup thought for a moment before answering, "July 8, 975." Jack was a bit surprised. That was the exact date that he had just left; well, except for the year, obviously. "Well," Hiccup stated, startling Jack out of his reverie. "It's getting dark, and my dad will be worried if I'm late. Do you want to stay in our village for a bit while we sort this out?"

Jack was grateful for this kindness, as he'd rather not spend another 300 years or more sleeping by a frozen lake. "Sure," he grinned.


	3. Chapter 3

When Hiccup first woke up on the beach next to his dragon, he was shocked to find a boy with pure white hair and strange apparel staring at him. He was startled, of course, but when he learned that this innocent looking boy that looked no older than him was Jökul Frosti, the cruel Frost Giant, he was terrified. When he heard the thump of Toothless hitting the ground as the air around him seemed to get colder, he was truly afraid. He had already been mentally saying goodbye to his father, friends and Toothless when the Frost Giant had touched his shoulder. But to learn that this thing, this winter spirit, meant him no harm, well, that was surprising. But it to no end caused him relief. He was pretty sure his father's heart would break if he found his only son frozen in the forest, along with his dragon. But now, he had to deal with somehow explaining to his village that this strange boy from the future (hmm... maybe he shouldn't mention that part) that could make ice and snow meant them no harm. Oh well. If anything went wrong, he'd have Toothless to back him up.

It was already nightfall by the time they reached the village, so there wasn't a lot of people outside. A few wild dragons flew overhead and Hiccup drank in Jack's look of wonder as the flying reptiles passed over the rooftops. They quickly made their way to the highest point of the village, where the Great Hall and the Chief's house resided. Hiccup took in a deep breath before opening his front door and tiptoeing inside, turning around to beckon Jack and Toothless in before carefully checking the room in front of him for any sign of his father. The fireplace was empty with no trace of warmth from a recent fire, Stoick's helmet and sword weren't in his empty bedroom and there was no fish or yak meat in the bucket of ice the Chief usually would fill with food if he had to go nearby islands on chiefing responsibilities. So, Stoick must be in the village. Just then, he heard the creak of the front door and heavy footsteps from the front of the house. Quickly, he pushed Jack into the shadows while cautiously approaching his father, who looked horrible. His long, red beard was tangled and messy, his favourite helmet was askew and his eyes looked tired and worried. The Chief sat down heavily on a chair by the fireplace, having not noticed his son's presence yet. Hiccup was puzzled; why did his father look so careworn and rundown? Had something happened? Carefully, he stepped behind his father's chair before appearing on Stoick's right side and touched his arm gently, trying to bring him out of his reverie. His eyes had a glazed look to them and he was looking off into space like he was searching for something precious. Finally, his father's gaze cleared and he said, "Astrid, I haven't seen hide nor hair of Hiccup. I promise I'll tell you if I find something," before looking up into the forest green eyes of his son. Stoick immediately jumped up and hugged Hiccup tightly, almost suffocating him in the process. The Chief then stepped back and regarded the young Viking boy thoroughly while asking frantic questions like, "Are you hurt? Who took you? Where's Toothless? Where have you been for the past five hours? You were supposed to be back by sunset!"

Hiccup put up his hands in a calming gesture and said, "Relax, Dad, I'm fine. I was flying on Toothless near Raven Point when I met someone. I brought him here, since he's, well, a bit lost, and needed somewhere to stay. Just promise me you won't freak out, okay? He doesn't want to hurt us." At Stoick's slight nod, Hiccup turned around and beckoned Jack out of the shadows, where his snow white hair, strange blue tunic and crooked stick was easily visible in the flickering light of the fire Toothless had just made in the fireplace.

Stoick stood there for a moment before muttering, "Jökul Frosti," to himself, letting loose a war cry and charging straight at Jack, sword pointed at him while pushing Hiccup behind his large form. Jack jumped in the air, startled, and hovered there while Hiccup attempted to calm Stoick down. Key word,  _attempted._

"Dad! It's ok! Everything's fine! He's not evil like the tales say! He doesn't want to hurt us and he's lost! He needs our help!" Hiccup exclaimed, pulling on his father's huge arm, to no avail. Stoick just grunted before shoving Hiccup backwards with enough force to land him on his rear, but luckily Toothless caught him with his head. Hiccup whispered, "Thanks, bud," to Toothless before joining his father's side again.

"Hiccup, go! Run! It's Jökul Frosti! He's tricked you! He's a cruel, cold-hearted beast! If we don't get rid of him now, he'll freeze the whole village! Now get Toothless and run!" Stoick yelled at Hiccup. Jack continued to hover safely out of Stoick's sword's reach with a puzzled expression at the Chief's antics.

Finally, after much explaining about how Jack came here and who he really is and persuading Stoick that if he wanted to kill them, he could've done it already on Hiccup's part, Stoick warily sheathed his sword and let Jack float back to the ground.

Hiccup sighed with relief. His father was very stubborn in his ways and very protective of Hiccup and the village. He had to be if he was going to be Chief. Toothless nudged Hiccup from behind and laughed in a dragon sort of way at how worked up Stoick could get. Hiccup immediately understood and chuckled as well, before walking to Jack's side and saying to his father mock formally, "Dad, this is Jack Frost, the Spirit of Winter. Jack, this is my dad, the Chief of my tribe."

"Yeah, I kinda figured that," said Jack sarcastically.

Hiccup rolled his eyes and said, "See, dad? He's fine. And he needs our help. He's, uh,  _lost_ and needs a place to stay. Can he stay here?"

Stoick grumbled and said, "But Hiccup, I don't even know where he's from. He's a Spirit! He doesn't even have a home!"

So Hiccup, seeing that they were going to get nowhere if he didn't explain about Jack being from the future and being the Spirit of Winter in 2012, sat down with his father and tried to break it gently to him that they were in the same room as a boy who came from over a thousand years in the future. Needless to say, Stoick didn't take it well.


	4. Chapter 4

"Are. You. Kidding. Me," Stoick said in a very flat, unimpressed voice when the two boys were finally done explaining. Stoick may have been quiet now, but this was the calm before the storm.

"Um... unfortunately, no," Hiccup replied, wary of the frankly alarming shade of red his father's face was becoming.

"Believe me, I'd  _love_ to say yes... but basically, yeah, what Hiccup said," Jack added, stumbling over his words and trailing off when Stoick sent him a venomous and piercing glare.

"Hiccup, REALLY?!" Stoick yelled as he shot out of his seat in irritation. Hiccup winced and mumbled something under his breath. " _What did you just say?"_

"I said please don't get too mad," Hiccup said softly, eyes on the floor. He hated it when his father got worked up over something. Stoick's problem was that he just couldn't accept change and different things.

Stoick's demeanor softened slightly at Hiccup's words, but he was still pretty annoyed and frankly didn't really believe the two boys. "Hiccup, I'm sorry, but a winter spirit from 2012? It's impossible," he scoffed.

Jack spoke up indignantly, "Hey, anything's possible. You're talking to 300-year-old boy who can make snow, frost and ice come out of this stick." He held up his staff.

"Oh really? Prove it to me then," Stoick said, crossing his huge arms.

Jack didn't bother answering and pointed his staff at the fireplace and put out the blazing fire with a shot of snow. Let  _that_ be his answer.

Stoick stood, shocked, then rushed to the fireplace and picked up some snow with his meaty hands, studying it. He then got up wordlessly, picked Jack up as if he weighed no less than a feather (which, at Jack's current weight of 90 pounds and Stoick's strength, he might as well have been) and proceeded to shake him up and down slightly, searching his pockets as well.

"Hey! PUT ME DOWN! What are you doing?" Jack asked, holding onto his staff so it wouldn't fall to the floor.

"Um, yeah, Dad, what  _are_ you doing?" Hiccup asked tentatively, unsure of his father's actions.

"Looking for spare snow in his pockets," Stoick replied simply. Finally having found none, he set Jack down (right side up this time) with the most bewildered expression on his face. If Hiccup had been in the mood, he would've laughed. Stoick the Vast was  _never_ bewildered.

"Okay, I believe that he is a winter spirit, or at least some freak of nature who can make snow," Stoick admitted, a frown lowering his bushy eyebrows. "But, since I don't trust him, he's staying in the cells."

Hiccup was irked that his father hadn't said  _don't trust him **yet** , _but didn't push it. That didn't mean that he wasn't still annoyed with his father's paranoia. "But Dad-" he started.

"No buts," Stoick cut him off sternly. "He can stay there for the time being, and I'm hiding his stick."

"Staff," Jack automatically corrected, then he realized the true meaning of the chief's words. "Wait! I can't use my powers without my staff! I can't even fly! You can't do that!"

"I can and I will," Stoick replied stubbornly, his voice and posture full of authority. He picked Jack up by his hood and hung him on a hook usually used for cloaks and took his staff away from him. He placed it carefully by his chair, pointed at it and told Hiccup, "Do  _not_ touch this," then picked Jack up by his hood again and exited the house by the front door, heading to the prisoner cells.

Hiccup sighed heavily.

* * *

"Put me down! Let  _go_ of me! Right NOW!" Jack yelled angrily. He  _hated_ being manhandled. He was 17, not 7.

Of course, Stoick paid the struggling spirit no heed and stuffed him into a cell, quickly locking the padlock and moving away before Jack could shove his 90 pounds through the door. Stoick regarded him seriously for a second, then just said, "Don't try to leave," before leaving himself.

Jack slid down the wall to sit down on the cold stone floor with a huff. Well, this was  _not_ what he had imagined when he had followed Hiccup back to the other boy's village.

He ran a hand through his snow-white hair, a nervous habit he'd picked up over the 300 years he'd been a spirit. Jack hugged his legs to his chest and wondered if they would bother to feed him. Of course, Jack was a spirit and therefore didn't technically require food, but even he got peckish after awhile.

Jack then started thinking about Hiccup. What was he doing back at his house? Surely he would try to persuade his father to release him! Maybe they were having that argument right now.

Jack sighed heavily.

* * *

When Stoick returned from locking Jack up, Hiccup quickly jumped up from his seat by the renewed fire (he'd restarted it after his father had left) and said, "Dad, you know Jack hasn't done anything wrong, so why did you lock him up?"

Stoick took his helmet off and placed it on a nearby table, walking past Hiccup without looking at him. "Hiccup..." he sighed. "I just don't trust him. Not yet. We don't even know anything about him!"

"That's no excuse for putting him in a cell and rendering him powerless!" Hiccup exclaimed. Toothless looked up sleepily from his cat nap in the corner of the room and watched the exchange curiously.

"Hiccup, I am the Chief. I have to make the decisions for this village's safety, and I decided to lock him up until I'm sure that he doesn't pose a threat," Stoick said with his usual "Chiefly" tone of voice.

Hiccup's face fell. He could tell when his father wouldn't change his mind. He watched as Stoick sat down at the kitchen table and nursed a cup of mead from their stores. "Oh, and Hiccup?" he asked suddenly.

The boy looked up, inquisitive. "Yes?"

"Don't you  _ever_ disappear like that again." Even Toothless looked surprised at the intensity in Stoick's voice. "I couldn't bear to lose you," he added in a mumble, staring mournfully into his tankard.

"O-Okay," Hiccup replied, astonished that his father seemed to, for once in his life, outwardly care about him. Sure, he had tried to be more understanding and flexible since the battle with the Red Death, but that didn't mean that Stoick was suddenly all lovey-dovey and mother hen.

"It's been a long day. Go to bed," Stoick ordered, running a hand through his hair.

"Okay," his son answered in a monotone. Hiccup was still a bit surprised that his father actually cared, plus, he was getting seriously tired after all this excitement. He beckoned to Toothless, who grumbled at having to get up from his comfortable, warm spot on the floor, but who followed his human nevertheless up the stairs to Hiccup's room. They both went through their nightly rituals, such as Toothless turning around a few times on his rock while heating it up with his plasma before lying down on it with a huge sigh and Hiccup taking off his boots and verifying that all the candles were blown out before lying down on his thin bed under the blanket.

"Toothless," Hiccup said suddenly, having a thought. The Night Fury lifted his head and green met green in an unspoken  _Yes?_

"What do you think about Jack?" he asked, seriously interested in his dragon's opinion.

Toothless cocked his head to the side, then grumbled in his throat.

Hiccup laughed. "Yeah, I think he's a bit weird too, but he seems nice. And he could've easily hurt us, but he didn't." Here, Toothless growled even deeper in his throat, frowning. "I know, bud. You never would've let it happen, right."

And with that, Viking and dragon fell asleep, while not too far away, a winter spirit curled into himself, all alone.


	5. Chapter 5

The next day seemed to come too soon for Hiccup. It was like one minute, he was yawning and cuddling into his nice warm bed, and the next minute, sunlight was streaming through the windows and Toothless was nudging his side incessantly.

He waved away Toothless, who was getting impatient, and tugged the blanket off before getting up and rubbing the crusts out of the corners of his eyes that ad gathered there in his slumber. Something was different about today... What was it? Oh, yeah!

Jack Frost!

This sudden remembrance quickened Hiccup's movements as he got dressed for the day. Finally, accompanied by Toothless, he ran down the stairs (as much as a one-footed 90-pound Viking boy and a dragon can run, anyway) and found his father sipping a tankard of milk and writing something on a piece of parchment.

"Morning, Dad!" Hiccup greeted Stoick cheerfully. Toothless went directly to the basket of fish waiting for him while Hiccup sat down at the table and started eating mutton soup leftovers. "What are you doing there? Looks interesting," he asked curiously.

"Just some chiefing duties, son. And if you're going to ask about that Frost boy, which I know you are, I'm not changing my mind overnight. He's staying where he is until I can trust him not to bury the whole village in snow. Thor knows this village needs more of it."

"But, Dad! It's summer! There isn't any snow!"  _For once,_ he added mentally.

"That's besides the point, Hiccup. Jack is staying in the cell, and that's final," Stoick asserted with a  _plunk_ as he set his now-empty tankard of milk down. His chair made a  _screech_ as he pushed it back and stood up, looking at Hiccup as he did so with an expression of determination on his face. "Now, Hiccup, I don't want you to go to the cells and talk to the boy, alright? Knowing you, you'll get into more trouble."

Hiccup took in a breath to say that he was offended that his father thought he was a troublemaker, but Stoick didn't give him the time. He was already out the door, starting another day as Chief of the village. The Viking boy huffed and instead watched Toothless eat his breakfast. Funnily enough, by the time his dragon had finished scarfing down raw fish first thing in the morning, Hiccup had lost his already paltry appetite.

He sighed and abandoned his soup, heading for the door. As he passed the fireplace, Hiccup spotted Jack's staff, still there after Stoick forgot it this morning. Without contemplating it further, Hiccup grabbed it and jogged out the door, Toothless at his heels. Of course, Hiccup headed straight for the prison cells. He entered the grungy and gloomy building and made his way quietly to the one occupied cell. Jack's head was in his hands as he lay curled in the fetal position on the stone bench.  _Is he asleep?_ Hiccup wondered.

He tapped the bars with Jack's staff lightly and stepped back when the winter spirit shot up almost immediately. "What?" Jack asked loudly, startled.

"Shh!" Hiccup admonished, checking over his shoulder to watch the doorway. Anyone could've been walking by when Jack had yelled. After a few seconds of silence, save Jack's heavy breathing, Hiccup and Toothless relaxed, though Toothless was still warily watching Jack. After all, this strange human had made him go unconscious yesterday  _and_ had appeared out of thin air, knocking his Hiccup and himself out of the sky. Toothless scoffed.  _Humans don't fly,_ he reassured himself. But after witnessing Jack's hovering in the air last night while Stoick had been trying to kill the winter spirit, he wasn't so sure.

"What are you doing here, Hiccup? Did your dad say I can leave this place?" Jack asked excitedly, but in a quiet voice.

"Sorry, but no, Jack. Actually, this morning, he forbade me from even visiting you."

Jack noticed the crooked stick in Hiccup's hands and remarked, "Hey! You got my staff back!" Then, after a pause, he frowned. "But if you give it to me, you'll get in trouble."

Hiccup shook his head. "No, I've got a plan for that, actually. I'll give you your real staff, then while you hide it under the bench, I'll find a similar stick in the forest and put it in your staff's place at home. Then, when my dad finally realizes that you won't harm anybody, he'll find out that the whole while, you had your staff and therefore the power to get out of the cell, but you didn't. That'll gain his trust." Hiccup stopped talking, a bit out of breath.

Jack looked suitably impressed. "Wow. Good plan." Hiccup handed him his staff through the bars and Jack smiled a relieved smile, glad to be back in possession of his staff again, even if he couldn't use it. His staff was like an extension of his body. "So what do I do in the meantime? I mean, how long is it going to take your dad to trust me enough to let me out?"

Hiccup thought for a few moments, then replied, "I don't know, but it shouldn't be too long. I'll convince him... eventually." Jack, obviously, didn't look pleased. "Don't look at me like that! You should be glad that I was able to sneak you your staff anyway. And after everyone's done eating at the Great Hall, I'll steal some leftovers and bring you some food. You must be hungry." The winter spirit chuckled. "What? What's so funny?"

"Hiccup, spirits don't starve as quickly as humans. In fact, I'm not even sure if we  _can_ starve. But yes, I am a bit hungry."

"Oh. Well, ok then." Hiccup sat down and crossed his legs in front of Jack's cell. "Breakfast doesn't end for another half an hour, so we have some time until everyone's out and about. So, Jack, tell me more about spirits."

Jack watched Hiccup's curious expression and the eager way he leaned forward. Man, this kid sure seemed to like learning new things. "Well, I belong to a group of spirits called the Guardians in the future. There are - or will be, I guess - four other spirits who are in the group, apart from me: North, Tooth, Sandy and Bunny."

Hiccup started to guffaw. "What?" Jack demanded, intrigued.

" _Bunny?_ " the young Viking asked incredulously while trying to smother his loud laughter.

"Never mind the names. And that was just a nickname - his real name is E. Aster Bunnymund. Anyway, North was the spirit of Christmas, or as you Vikings would call it, Snoggletog. He had a whole crew of Yetis and elves to do his bidding, which was either to make toys for all the children in the world to give away each December 24th or to bake cookies and sweets. He really had a sweet tooth, which annoyed Tooth to no end," Jack recited, a fond expression on his face.

"Wow... that sounds amazing! But how would North-" Hiccup was cut off by Toothless growling at an intruder who had just arrived in the doorway.

Hiccup and Jack stiffened but the intruder stepped out of the shadows and it was revealed to be... Astrid?

And she did not look happy. No, not at all.


	6. Chapter 6

"Uh... Hi, Astrid..." Hiccup greeted the spiky-looking girl awkwardly, whose frown deepened at his sheepishness.

"Hiccup, what is going on here?" she asked quietly, glancing between Hiccup and Jack.

Hiccup opened his mouth to reply (or come up with some lie) but Jack beat him to it. "I'm a 300-year-old winter spirit from the year 2012 who is now stuck in your time," he declared bluntly. " _Naturally_ , your Chief doesn't trust me and so he locked me in here."

Hiccup sighed and slapped a hand to his forehead in the universal _are you kidding me_ gesture. Toothless lied down and covered his eyes with his paws in an amusingly similar manner to Hiccup. Astrid just stood there, face frozen in a rare expression of shock, before slowly turning to Hiccup and muttering threateningly, "Hiccup, I swear to Odin, if this is some kind of half-wit prank by the twins and Snotlout..."

The slight Viking boy rushed to reassure her. "Oh, no! Of _course_ not!"

Astrid was silent for a second, then asked, "Hiccup, if that's the case... then what _are_ you doing here?"

Hiccup scratched his head, trying to put his plan of gaining his father's trust in Jack through going behind his back into words that somehow wouldn't tick off Astrid. "Well, Astrid, you see... that is, it's like - "

" - your friend here stole my staff, the conduit of my powers, back from his father and his chief after the man specifically told him not to and gave it back to me with the idea in mind to find a similar stick to my staff to replace it in his house to convince his father that even with my powers, I won't do anything to harm his village."

"Jack!" Hiccup admonished.

"What?" Jack replied mock innocently. "You obviously weren't getting anywhere." Toothless rolled his great green eyes in exasperation.

Astrid was standing stock-still, her eyes closed. "Astrid? You okay?" Hiccup asked her tentatively.

"I'm just trying to process this, Hiccup." she said slowly. "This... _boy_ in that cell is a winter spirit from over 1000 years into the future, who is older than even Gothi, who can summon up snow and ice and frost at will and who just appeared out of nowhere, completely lost?" Her tone got more and more skeptic as she went on.

"That's about all of it, yeah," he replied, scratching his head and looking to Toothless, who was busy sniffing Jack's staff cautiously, which amused Jack to no great end. Honestly, the dragon was acting like a giant house cat.

Astrid sighed deeply. "Well, Hiccup, for now I'm not going to ask what this is all about, but you can bet that I'll have questions for you two later. As for now, you need a better plan than that, Hiccup." she admonished. "What if gaining the Chief's trust takes too long? Or what if he discovers that you switched the staff and gets angry? Or what if you can't find a stick that looks like the kid's staff?"

"Kid? _Kid?!_ " Jack piped up incredulously. "I am more than 20 times your age!" He paused, then added thoughtfully, "21, actually, if you count the years I spent as a human."

"I'm not even going to _pretend_ that I understood that," Astrid groaned, a hand rubbing over her eyes tiredly. "Anyways, Hiccup, _kid,_ " she continued, since now she knew that it annoyed him, "You can't just do this on your own. You'll need help."

Hiccup's shoulders slumped, but he had to admit that she was right. They needed help. And with a sinking feeling in his chest, Hiccup knew exactly who Astrid was thinking of to go to for help; the only people in the village who wouldn't tell on them to the Chief.

The other teens.


	7. Chapter 7

It took some time to round them all up, but Astrid and Hiccup eventually found and enlisted the help of Snotlout, the twins and Fishlegs. They had left Toothless behind to defend Jack just in case Stoick decided to check on him in the jail and saw him with his staff.

Snotlout had been in his bed at his house, snoring away even though it was almost 10 in the morning and everyone else in the village was already up and about. After a quick kick to the midsection from Astrid, he was wide awake, shrieking like a little girl and already reaching for an axe by his bedside. They explained the situation briefly to him and, as expected, he broke out into loud laughter, thinking it to be some trick they were trying to put over him. But they assured him it wasn't, and promised him that they could prove it if he followed them. As they (Snotlout included, thankfully) exited the Jorgenson house, they heard a distant rumbling and figured that following the noise would lead them to the twins.

Their instincts were right. They found Ruff and Tuff on the other side of the island, cheering as they watched a rock landslide that they had caused with the help of their dragon, Barf and Belch. They completely bought their story about Jack, Tuff exclaiming about having always wanted to meet the guy who could cause such mass destruction through frozen water.

Fishlegs was discovered at the beach, categorizing rocks and testing Meatlug's reaction to them after she ate them. He was skeptical, but ultimately agreed to help in whatever "harebrained scheme they'd invented now" because to be honest, he was bored senseless with all the categorizing.

Finally, they met up at the jail, in front of Jack's cell. Jack himself was surprised at the sight of them. They'd been gone for quite a while and he'd thought it must be lunch time or something like that and that they were all eating. However, Astrid and Hiccup had managed to track down and convince the other four teens to help in just over an hour, making it about 11 o'clock.

Hiccup, of course, started the discussion. "Okay, guys. You all know why we're here. Jack needs our help. My dad is being," he sighed heavily, " _incredibly_ stubborn and we need to get him to trust Jack so he'll let him go and then we'll try to send him back to his time."

"Uh, question? Why don't we just _steal_ the key to the cell from Stoick and then _hide_ Jack somewhere while trying to figure out how to send him home?" Fishlegs inquired.

"Because we don't want to be brutally slaughtered by the Chief when he finds out Jack's escaped," Tuff deadpanned.

Astrid regarded Fishlegs carefully. "No, actually, it _could_ work. All we'd have to do is free Jack, then explain away how he escaped and where his staff is... unless we replace the staff with another similar-looking stick and say he lied about his powers being tied to the staff, so he broke out..." she mumbled, almost talking to herself as she went on.

"But my dad'll be _really_ mad. You know how he's like when he thinks that there's a threat to Berk."

"Ooh! I know!" Ruffnut exclaimed. "We can _fake_ Jack's death but setting fire to the jail while spiriting him away somewhere! We'll have _Tuffnut_ inside the jail screaming while it's on fire so everyone else thinks that Jack's dying." She finished with a very proud smirk on her face.

Tuffnut grinned foolishly with her until he realized that it wasn't such a good plan after all. "Hey!" he protested.

"Okay... anyways, Hiccup, as much as I hate to admit it, Fishylegs here has a good idea. Plus, I _really_ don't feel like going to all the _work_ to gaining the Chief's trust or whatever," said Snotlout.

Hiccup _hmmmed_ to himself, listening to the ideas put out (with the exception of Ruffnut's, of course) and thinking up new ones in his head, then comparing them side-by-side. Finally, he made a decision. "Okay, guys, listen up: we'll go with Fishlegs' idea, but with a slight modification; we help Jack escape and we take his real staff with him, but we don't just replace the staff. We replace _Jack_ as well." Everyone went slack-jawed. "We can have someone pretend to be Jack in his place, so someone'll have to be in the cell, and if my dad checks in on him, that person will hide their face while I distract my dad. That way, he doesn't get mad at anyone for Jack escaping because it'll look like he never escaped. While we're trying to send Jack home, we can try to gain trust in my dad for Jack so if he _does_ decide to let him go, we can just switch the replacement for Jack and the useless stick for Jack's staff. It'd be like it never happened at all!" Hiccup finally finished, a bit out of breath.

"But... who would replace Jack?" Fishlegs asked tentatively.

"Well, we'd have to pick someone about Jack's height and weight..." Astrid muttered. Her gaze eventually fell on... Tuffnut.

Tuff recoiled, appalled. "No! I mean, fake someone's death by screaming in a burning house, _fine,_ but face Stoick's wrath? No way!"

"Come on, Tuff," Snotlout began, elbowing him hard in the ribs. "All you've gotta do is get a haircut, dye your hair white, make your skin more pale somehow and switch clothes with Jack! Easy-peasy."

Jack, who was watching this all avidly, snorted in disgust at someone else wearing his clothes. Then he paused. Whose clothes would he wear if he gave his own to this... _Tuffnut?_

"Wait a second! Who would take _my_ place if I'm taking _his_ place?" Tuff asked, pointing to Jack.

"I'll just say you're camping or something to our parents, and they'll tell the rest of the village," Ruffnut inputted much too cheerfully.

The twins started arguing and Astrid went and joined Hiccup, who was sitting back and watching it all pan out. "So, think we bit off more than we can chew?" she demanded, arms folded.

Hiccup shook his head, but, after regarding Barf and Belch reach their heads inside and each pick up a twin to separate them, he nodded regretfully. "Probably."


End file.
